Putin Orders U.S. to Cut 755 Diplomatic Employees in Russia

Russian President Vladimir Putin said Sunday that he was ordering the United States to reduce its diplomatic staff in the country by 755.

In an interview with the state-owned broadcaster Russia 24, Putin said the move was in response to "illegal restrictions" imposed by the United States. Putin claimed that more than a "thousand" U.S. diplomatic employees are in Russia, but "755 will have to cease their activities in the Russian Federation."

Putin Orders 755 U.S. Diplomats Out of Russia in Response to Sanctions2:29

autoplay autoplay

Copy this code to your website or blog

Initial reports said Putin had ordered 755 Americans out of the country, but in the interview, he said only that he had ordered a reduction in staff, without saying specifically whether all of them were American nationals.

A U.S. State Department official told NBC News that the order would cut the number of diplomatic staff to 455 by Sept. 1.

"This is a regrettable and uncalled-for act," the official said. "We are assessing the impact of such a limitation and how we will respond to it."

MSNBC contributor Michael McFaul, a former U.S. ambassador to Russia, said he didn't believe Putin's order targeted only U.S. diplomats. "When I was U.S. ambassador, we didn't have that many Americans in Russia," he said.

But McFaul called the move a "major escalation" far out of proportion with the Obama administration's decision to expel 35 suspected Russian spies in December.

The Russian order came days after Congress passed a new round of sanctions aimed at punishing Moscow for interfering in the United States' presidential election and for its military aggression in Ukraine and Syria.

The bill, which also included sanctions against Iran and North Korea, passed overwhelmingly in the House and the Senate, with only five dissenting votes between them.

Putin said it was unclear whether additional retaliatory measures would be taken, and he cited other areas of common interest — cyber crime, energy and aviation — as evidence that Russia and the United States can work together.

Putin also said a cease-fire in southern Syria brokered by the United States, Russia and Jordan was a "concrete result of joint work."

"We work and achieve results even now, even in this rather complicated situation," Putin said, again dismissing the conclusion among U.S. intelligence agencies that Russia interfered in the 2016 election.